Exhibitions
Crafts Center exhibitions include creative works from students, local artists and crafts guild members.
Exhibitions are on display throughout the year at the Crafts Center’s R. A. Bryan Foundation, Inc. Gallery and in the Street Gallery Windows. The windows usually display instructor examples for upcoming classes, craft guild exhibitions and works by Crafts Center artists and craftspeople.
Gallery exhibitions are supported by NCSU Foundation.
Exhibitions are open for viewing during normal Crafts Center hours as listed on our Calendar page.
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Spring 2017
In the R. A. Bryan , Inc. Gallery:
Colors of the Nile:
The Nile Project Mural
March 13 through July 30
Reception: Friday, April 21, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Colors of the Nile is an interactive mural project sponsored by the Crafts Center and The Nile Project at NC State Live! as part of a series of programs/events in collaboration with The Nile Project residency on campus this spring. The mural was designed by local artist and recent College of Design graduate Dare Coulter. The mural is the culmination of weeks of work between Ms. Coulter, NC State students, and community members. The result is an extraordinary 36′ x 7′ mural comprised of 9 wood panels. Colors of the Nile celebrates this river as a gift of life giving water to all the countries of the Nile River basin and promotes a spirit of cooperation among nations in the sharing and sustainability of the water. 
The completed mural will be unveiled at a reception on April 21, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. To celebrate the unveiling of this ambitious mural, indie-classical quartet ETHEL will interpret the work through live music.
The mural will remain on exhibition at the Crafts Center through the summer.
Art at the Atomic Scale
January 10 – March 3
To explore the atomic scale, scientists use very large and powerful microscopes that can capture pictures of atoms. Like looking through the telescope to see the stars, these electron microscopes make it possible to see how atoms arrange themselves to form a material. The works in this exhibit aim to translate science to the general public through an artist expression of the arrangement of atoms in materials, as captured with the scanning transmission electron microscope. This “atom art” shows people that we can directly see atoms, and the orderly, often beautiful, way that atoms are arranged in materials. And how those atoms are arranged, the patterns they make, is key to understanding a material’s properties and how engineers can control those properties.
Join us for a corresponding presentation by Professor James M. LeBeau on February 15 at 6:00 p.m.
Make your own piece of atom art in our Atomic Structure Pendant class!
In the Street Gallery Windows:
The Potters Penguin Project
February 20 – April 28
A colony of Adélie penguins near Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica, whose population recently plummeted from about 160,000 birds to 10,000 birds, inspired Triangle area potter Elizabeth Paley to start a community art project called the Potters’ Penguin Project. The goal was to collectively make and exhibit at least 1,500 clay penguins, to make the impacts of global warming on distant places more tangible to both makers and viewers. The resulting colony has grown to over 1900 penguins, off which over 600 are currently on exhibit in the Crafts Centers street gallery windows. The variety in the colony is as inspiring as its sheer numbers. Over 400 makers participated, from professional and amateur clay artists, to elementary, middle, and high school students and artscamp campers, to volunteers and passersby at multiple Make-a-Penguin events. Most of the penguins originated in the NC Triangle, but penguin donations have also been received from as far west as Arizona, as far south as Mexico, and as far east and north as Germany. After exhibiting in various locations, the colony will disperse to raise funds for environmental advocacy charities.
PPP information sheet »
PPP makers list »
PPP orders of magnitude »
PPP species list »
Visit the Potters Penguin Project website to learn more about the project.